What Are the System Requirements for Fallout 4 on PC?

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Fallout 4 is coming to PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 on November 10, 2015, which is right around the corner. Like always, if you're playing on Xbox One and PS4, you're good to go, but if you're on PC you need to know if your rig can handle the Wasteland. Today, Bethesda released the minimum and recommended PC specs for Fallout 4.

The specs are below:

Minimum

• OS: Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
• Processor: Intel Core i5-2300 2.8 GHz/AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0 GHz or equivalent
• Graphics Card: NVIDIA GTX 550 Ti 2GB/AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB or equivalent
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Storage: 30 GB free HDD space

Recommended

• OS: Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
• Processor: Intel Core i7 4790 3.6 GHz/AMD FX-9590 4.7 GHz or equivalent
• Graphics Card: NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB/AMD Radeon R9 290X 4GB or equivalent
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Storage: 30 GB free HDD space

There's two things that pop out about these system specs. The first is that the game has very high CPU requirements, looking for Intel Core i7 4790 3.6 GHz or AMD FX-9590 4.7 GHz on the recommended side. The 4790 is a top-of-the-line CPU from last year and there's only a few options you have to go above it, including the unlocked versions of the same chip. A 4790 will run you $300 easy, but honestly I think these are high-tuned specs and you can probably get away with Core i5-4690, which drops your out-of-pocket costs down to $225. Unless the i7's Hyper Threading is very, very important to Fallout 4, the i5 should be enough. The AMD FX-9590 4.7 GHz will run you around the same price as the Core i5-4690, coming in at $240.

The second thing I notice is these minimum specs differ wildly. And Nvidia GTX 550 Ti and Radeon HD 7870 are nowhere near equivalent. The 550 Ti is from a generation prior to the Radeon, which should perform around the same as a GTX 660. You're talking a difference of 20-30 fps on certain games and settings here, but Bethesda is saying they should have similar performance. That's pretty odd.

The GTX 780 and Radeon R9 290X stand close to each other depending on the title. The GTX 780 is two years old at this point, meaning it's hard to find and will still run you around $300. Instead, pick up a GTX 970 for only $20 more, which is near the top of the heap without going above $400. Even a GTX 960 for $200 will put you in spitting distance if you turn down some of the bells and whistles.

The R9 290X was AMD's flagship card from last year and will cost around $330-360 or you can try this year's R9 390 for around the same price. This year's model has more RAM (8 GB), so it can run games at higher resolutions much easier. I know what I'd choose.

If you want to rock the Fallout, you probably should get to upgrading.